REAL ACCENT COACH REACTS TO FAKE ACCENT COACH
Today we’re at my computer to watch a fake
accent coach working with a student. This
is a hilarious scene from the movie “The
Pink Panther”. Not really to be taken seriously
but what can we learn about accent coaching
by watching this.
I would like to buy a hamburger
I would like to buy a hamburger
Okay. Right away I have a little bit of beef
and that is she said it once, he repeated
it not very accurately and then she exaggerated.
I would like to buy a hamburger.
So that’s not actually natural English.
I can’t stand it when people are coaching
students in a way that’s not natural. No
one wants to learn unnatural English. They want
to learn natural conversational English. Let’s
keep going.
Let’s go over two phrases I used here. I
said I had beef. What the heck does it mean
to have beef? Beef is the meat that comes
from a cow. But we also use it idiomatically
to say “I have a complaint or a problem
with someone or the way someone is doing something.”
Like here, the way the accent coach is working.
I basically said this again in another way
when I said. “I can’t stand it.” It
bothers me, I have a problem with it, I think
something is wrong with it. I have beef with
it.
I would like to buy a hamburger.
No, no, no. Let’s break it down.
I
Uh
I
Ah
Okay now, I do love breaking it down. This
is something I do with my students all the
time. Sometimes a full sentence is too much.
There’s too much going on. Melody, rhythm,
sounds, linking, reductions. I actually love
breaking up longer sentences into smaller
chunks.
I
I
Would
Would
Would
Would
Okay, so she’s breaking it down and she’s
just saying a single word having him repeat
it but she’s not giving him any feedback
when he’s not doing it well and she’s also
not doing it enough times for him to repeat
it back in a better way.
So I have an online school, Rachel’s English
Academy where we do accent training with our
students and the transformation they make
is incredible.
When my students use the Play it, say it method
in the academy, they may play it and say it
fifteen times in a row. Now here’s what’s
incredible about that. When you play it and
say it, play it and say it, their ear does
something, the mind connection works and they
end up tweaking their mouth position to make
a sound that’s usually completely accurate
by the end of their repetitions and they do
that by themselves without me telling them
what to change or tweak, they figure it out
as they go as their ear matches the sound
and I love watching this happen because it
empowers the students. They realize with
this method and this material, they can improve
all on their own without having an accent
coach there.
Would
Would
Would
Would
You know what I’m going to say. Again, woooould.
That’s not how anybody says that word. So
let’s not teach our students that that’s
how we say a word.
Now, another thing that’s important that
she’s not doing that I always do with my
students in the academy is also give information.
It’s not just now about listening and repeating
with adult students. Adult students need some
information, some insight into the anatomy
and how we would produce certain sounds. So
if you’re studying with me in my academy,
you did a video that goes over the concepts
so you get it intellectually with your head
then you move in to the audio for the training
session.
Would
Like
Like
Like
Like
To
To
To
To
To
To
Buy
Buy
Buy
Buy
(Laughing) I love everything about this. I
love Steve Martin. Now, like we said, this
is a comedy. This woman isn’t actually trying
to be an accent coach, it’s a spoof. What’s
a spoof? It’s an imitation of something
generally in a way that exaggerates some of
the characteristics.
The other really important thing to talk about
here is the character wants to sound completely
American to blend in for his job. He has a
French accent and the one thing I want to
make sure I say explicitly is there’s nothing
wrong having an accent. Sometimes as an accent
coach I feel like I got pigeonholed as somebody
who thinks we all need to sound the same.
Totally not true. I feel like I exist from
my students to help them meet their goals whatever
their goals are. Accents themselves are completely
beautiful.
I used an interesting phrase here, pigeon
hole. Have you heard this phrase before?
A pigeon is a common city bird. A pigeon hole
did originally mean a small space for a pigeon.
Now it refers to a set of small compartments
for sorting letters or papers. As a verb,
the way I used it, it means to assign a particular
category or class to something especially
in a manner that’s too narrow. Let’s say
you’re an aspiring chef. You worked in three
seafood restaurants. You’re looking for
a new job and you’ve decided the restaurant
definitely won’t be a seafood restaurant
because you don’t want to get pigeonholed.
You want to be known to excel at various cuisines
not just seafood.
Or an actor. Wants to make sure he doesn’t
get pigeonholed for playing the same kind
of part all the time. He wants to be hired
for all different kinds of roles. I said as
an accent coach, don’t pigeonhole me as
someone who thinks everyone should lose their
accent. Some of my students have that goal
and I want to help them reach that. But other
students love their accent but want to have
more ease with spoken communication. And I
think that’s great.
Buy
Buy
Buy
Buy
Buy
Buy
A
A
Hamburger
Hamburger
Hamburger
Hamburger
(Laughing) Oh my gosh, I love so much how
he says this word.
Hamburger
Hamburger
Hamburger
Hamburger
So, one thing to know from my French students,
the h in English is sometimes silent but usually
not like in the word “hamburger”, we have
h,h, that little escape of air sound, hamburger.
Why is it pronounced in hamburger but silent
in hour or honor? I don’t know but usually
it’s pronounced.
Ham
Ham
Bur
Bur
Ger
Ger
(laughing) Ham. Okay, another thing, I always
try to make sure that my students become aware
they are bringing in a physical gesture. So
for example with the word hamburger. Ham,
he says hem, hem . And I would want to make sure
my students recognize if they were doing that
so that they could stop doing it. Sometimes
students will bring in extra movement here
with the lips, a lot, whoo, that’s going
to be more work and it’s going to be harder
to relax with that so I always try to get
my students to notice these extra movements
and to take them out. It’s just going to
lead to a more natural, comfortable English.
Ah
I would like to buy a hamburger
I would like to buy a hamburger
It’s not the hamburger, hamburger
I’m not saying demburger I said I would
like the buy a damburger.
Okay, one other thing, In spoken English we
often use contractions, that would be much more
natural in spoken English. I would like to
buy a hamburger. Well, that phrase itself,
not very natural. I’d like to buy a hamburger,
sure. But what’s even more common?
I’ll have a hamburger or I’d like a hamburger
or I’ll take a hamburger.
All of these are a more natural way to say
this phrase.
I would like to buy a hamburger!
I would like to buy a hamburger!
Okay, so there’s come a certain point where
the method isn’t working, at this point
I would always stop with a student and try
a different approach. You can always find
something that’s going to get a little progress
one way or another and if what you’re trying
to do isn’t working especially if it’s
starting to lead to you shouting or some extra
tension, just drop it, forget it, leave it
for a minute and then come back to it maybe
with a slightly different approach or start
working on something totally different, a
different phrase.
In conclusion, if you want to reduce your
accent, there are methods.
Listen and repeat and as an adult, being told
the specifics of a certain topic like a mouth
position or the for reduction. Studying them
and working repetitiously with audio.
And if you can get feedback from a teacher,
great. Obviously that helps too. Actually,
all these things are available in my academy.
I’m Rachel Smith. I’ve been teaching here
on Youtube for 13 years and I worked with
many, many students who wanted to reduce their
accent. Through working with them, I have
developed my method a little different from
what you saw here. And I put all of my best
ideas in my academy, Rachel’s English Academy
so check it out if think you might want to
work in your accent, as a side note, you’re
also improving your listening comprehension
as you work through the materials in the academy.
If you want to know more, check out this video about the academy or go to rachelsenglishacademy.com.
You’ll get access to the method, the materials
and teachers to help guide you. It’s a subscription
but you can cancel at any time and If you’re
unhappy with it, just ask for a refund in
your first 30 days and we’ll give it to
you and thank you for having giving us a chance.
If you have any questions, put them in the comments below and thank you so much for watching, you
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That’s it and thanks so much for using Rachel’s
English.